Marilynn Marter, 66, a retired Inquirer food writer known for her encyclopedic knowledge of nutrition, cooking and baking, was found dead Thursday at her home in Philadelphia.

She died of natural causes, specifically hypertensive cardiovascular disease, said Jeff Moran, spokesman for the city Medical Examiner's Office. He declined to give further details.

Miss Marter lived alone in her condominium apartment at the Philadelphian, 2401 Pennsylvania Ave. in the city's Fairmount section. Before that, she lived at 227 N. Camac St.

She retired from the Inquirer in June 2008, after three decades in the Features Department, writing food stories and a monthly column called MarketBasket, that appeared on Wednesday.

Miss Marter was known for her command of the minutiae that is key to cooking, said Gerald Etter, her editor from 1992 to 2001.

"Marilynn knew all the intricacies of cooking, it was amazing," Etter said.

"She knew how it worked with the chemistry of baking, how everything came together with yeast. If you ever had a question, she could answer it. You would go to her before you would pick up a book."

Ken Bookman, who was her editor from 1982 to 1990, called Miss Marter "tenacious and detail-oriented."

"When something needed to be reported and gotten to the bottom of, she found out everything that needed to be found out. I thought she did a good job of putting together stories," Bookman said.

Bookman said Miss Marter worked hard to craft just the right phrase for the thoughts she wanted to convey. But for someone so fastidious, she was gracious about editing changes, Bookman recalled.

"She accepted editing very well, and flattered me with quite a bit of, 'Wow, that was exactly what I was trying to say,'" Bookman said.

"The Inquirer and its readers were so very fortunate to have Marilyn grace us with her knowledge and talent for more than three decades," said Deputy Managing Editor Tom McNamara. "She was a highly-skilled journalist whose writing and reporting had a major impact on the region's food scene – whether in Center City restaurants or suburban kitchens."

Articles archived in the Inquirer's electronic library show her depth, range and productivity; there are 1,544 stories. In the first on Jan. 21, 1981, Miss Marter wrote about how to prepare fish as a quick meal; the last on June 12, 2008, told of how flavored bread crumbs can be adapted to various dishes.

Some of the topics she wrote about in 2008 were the uses of a good viniagrette and how Philadelphia restaurants were offering bigger portions of beef than in the past.

In 2007, Miss Marter weighed in on wine tastings and cookbooks, as well as what to make for a Jewish holiday. Her breezy style was evident in a December 2004 story on latkes.

"Certainly," she wrote, "you don't have to be Jewish to love latkes, commonly made from grated potatoes and onions and fried in oil. Or to make them."

Miss Marter was responsible for MarketBasket, a monthly feature in which she would shop for the same 35 items at local groceries. She would write about what she found, and readers told him they found it useful, Bookman said.

She also wrote Feedback, a feature that was a running dialogue with readers, long before that was trendy.

"I thought she did a good job with that. Part of her tenacity was to find out the real answers to their questions," Bookman said.

Miss Marter maintained a quiet presence in her cubicle on the third floor of the Inquirer building; she didn't discuss her private life with colleagues, both editors said.

She was also the author of a book entitled Dining In - Philadelphia Cookbook, published by Xlibris.

Miss Marter loved flea markets, and traveling to a time-share she owned in Williamsburg, Va. At one point, she drove a motorcycle, said retired Inquirer food writer Elaine Tait.

Miss Marter was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She joined the Inquirer as a clerk, then became a Features copy editor and later a food writer, Tait said.

She never married. Miss Marter is survived by a nephew, Jim Zampier. Plans for a service were incomplete.

Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at 215-854-2913 or bcook@phillynews.com